Cameron Martin

Published 3:39 pm, Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Trumbull native Robert Dean says that becoming good at stand-up comedy is like becoming good at most things. Take, for instance, open-heart surgery.

"You need tons of practice and tons of time in doing it," Dean, 27, said in a recent phone interview. "It would be like asking a surgeon, `How did you do that triple bypass?' And the surgeon would probably say, `Well, ya know, I probably killed a number of patients in the past, but I've gotten a little bit better at it over time.' "

Dean, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., is headlining "NY Comics Live!" at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk on Saturday, May 11. It's a homecoming of sorts for Dean, who recently performed at the famed Caroline's on Broadway comedy club in New York City.

"I am so incredibly excited for the show," Dean said. "There's going to be people telling jokes at an IMAX theater, in an aquarium, on the water in Norwalk. It's going to be exciting."

This will be the first time the aquarium will be hosting an adult comedy night. With the addition of a new stage in the aquarium's IMAX theater last fall, the site can host a range of different events.

"This is kind of a change for a family-fun place," aquarium spokesman Dave Sigworth said. "(The new stage) has opened up this whole opportunity to have a bunch of events in the theater."

Dean makes regular appearances at clubs in New York City, but the pay is minimal, he said.

"There are very few shows that do pay, and the ones that do pay, (it's) nothing to live off of. You can maybe buy dinner with what you make from a club on a night," Dean said.

He still bartends on weekends to make ends meet. But he's booked gigs in such cities as Minneapolis and Tacoma, Wash., and he thinks he's turned the corner and can now focus on comedy as a full-time career.

"I was 18 years old when I first decided that I have to be a stand-up comedian. It wasn't like I was going to gamble with it; this is just what my life is going to be," said Dean, who graduated from Trumbull High School in 2003 and later attended Fairfield University.

It wasn't a smooth and steady trajectory. He recounted an incident at an Earth Day event in Westport several years ago, when he ran out of material and started ad-libbing about break dancing.

An audience member shouted out that he should be "stepping off," urban slang for telling a person confronting you to leave and/or leave you alone. Dean said he had no idea what the person was referring to, and the heckler said they were filming a movie called "Stepping Off," and Dean was the star.

Humbled by the incident, Dean said he quit comedy for a year. But then he moved to Brooklyn and regained his confidence. Nowadays, hecklers don't bother him as much.

"The best thing to do with hecklers is if you make everyone else laugh and, like, turn on that person, that person more often than not will shut up."

Growing up Dean was not a class clown, he said. Andy Kaufman was the comedian who showed him that stand-up provides many options.

"Andy Kaufman is the reason I do it now," Dean said. "He will always be my favorite. He kind of opened my eyes to see that stand-up comedy can be anything."

Comedy, he said, has been going through a renaissance, thanks in part to YouTube, Twitter and other digital platforms.